Professional Organizations

Abstract

The organization of psychology has proceeded in an irregular fashion. Beginning in 1889, international congresses of psychology were the first efforts to bring together psychologists. Three years later the first national association was formed in the United States. Over the course of the twentieth century, national psychological organizations were formed on every continent except Antarctica. By mid‐twentieth century, the International Union of Psychological Sciences was formed with 20 initial national associations as members and experienced continued growth as national organizations were formed. The largest national organization was the American Psychological Association, whose growth was facilitated by its reorganization in the 1940s into numerous divisions that represented specific areas of psychological science and practice. Increasingly, psychological organizations were formed to represent such specific areas and by the end of the century there were organizations that represented almost every scientific specialty and practice. The chapter provides a descriptive history of the events and processes of organizations from the broad, international level to the scientific society devoted to particular research topics. The chapter concludes with a brief analysis of historical forces at work in the formation of psychological organizations.

From research to practice: Toward an applied psychology of religion and spirituality.

“…Research-oriented psychologists have reacted with concern to this shift in the field. For example, the American Psychological Society was founded in 1988 by academic psychologists in response to the perception that the American Psychological Association (APA) was overly responsive to the interests of practitioners (Pickens & Fowler, 2003).…”

Moral Economies and Codes of Conduct: the Social Organization of Canadian Experimental Psychology

“…While I have attempted to highlight the basic processes of the evolution of psychological science as a profession, much additional work is required to understand the underlying factors that drive these processes and whether similar processes are evident in the global history of psychological science. 101 Factors that might often be classified as externalities relative to scientific practice, such as available funding, charismatic historical figures, and gender also likely play a significant role in the evolution of discplinary structures. For instance, gender represents such a persistent issue: researchers might select a topic due to its novelty or its status, and status might be determined by past associations with existing social categories such as gender.…”

Between the Cup of Principle and the Lip of Practice: Ethnic Minorities and American Psychology, 1966-1980.

“…The formation of ABPsi at the 1968 APA convention in San Francisco and the subsequent confrontation of the APA Board of Directors by ABPsi cochairmen Charles Thomas and Robert L. Green were further calls to action (Guthrie, 1998; Nelson, 1968). One of the key demands made by Thomas and Green was that APA must work toward increasing the number of minority psychology students and make clinical and counseling training programs relevant to minority students (Board of Directors, 1968; Pickren & Tomes, 2002; B. H. Williams, 1997; R.…”

“…By the second half of the 1970s, the advocacy of ABPsi, BSPA, and other emergent psychology organizations such as APLR, AAPA, and SIP (see Pickren & Fowler, 2003) bore fruit. In the next section, I describe the efforts of APA and NIMH to develop effective plans for increasing the number of ethnic minorities in psychology and analyze the success of the NIMH-funded Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) in its first years.…”

“…In 1970, APLR was formed during the APA convention in Miami. The number of APLR members was small at its inception, but the group grew in size as it focused on psychological issues relevant to Spanish-speaking members of the U.S. population (Pickren & Fowler, 2003). APA rebuffed the group when it used advocacy tactics similar to those of ABPsi and BSPA.…”